Not even scenery-chewing performances from Cuba Gooding Jr and Anthony Hopkins can save this rehashed, predictable “Silence of the Lambs in the Mist” story.
‘Memento’ director Christopher Nolan again trains his lens on a sensory disorder – this time sleep deprivation. A palpable sense of atmosphere and a welcome low-key turn from Al Pacino as the beleaguered main character carry the film to its otherwise silly conclusion.
Style-master Michael Mann’s fact-based little-man-vs.-Tobacco story – featuring Al Pacino in full scenery-chewing mode, Russell Crowe in a perfectly restrained performance and Christopher Plummer in a spot-on riff of Mike Wallace – is a little long but worth the investment.
Writer-director Paul Weitz crafts a bittersweet tale of a young upstart who finds corporate America not all it’s cracked up to be. A minor comedy with minor revelations featuring major performances by Topher Grace and Dennis Quaid (whose career is shaping up into everything Harrison Ford’s should have been).
Taut, cat-and-mouse police thriller – which follows two moles from each side of the law – is everything Michael Mann’s “Heat” set out to be.
‘Iron Giant’ creator Brad Bird somehow manages to raise the bar at Pixar yet again with his story of a retired superhero brought back into action with his equally super family in tow. Stunning production design, pitch-perfect writing and the by-now-requisite jaw-dropping animation make this one of the best animated films of all time.
If “The Fifth Element” were remade in Eastern Europe twenty years ago, it might resemble this jumbled mess of a film in which the gods of ancient Egypt descend on New York circa 2095 (yes, really).
Kieran Culkin gives an outstanding performance as the next incarnation of Holden Caufield in writer-director Burr Steers’ impressive film debut.
Another in the long line of increasingly substandard ‘twist’ thrillers designed solely for that one moment of ‘a-ha!’ at the 11th hour. Like most others, this one doesn’t have much else going for it, except a rock solid performance by John Cusack.
Seems like cold times as 20th Century Fox goes for a piece of the animation pie currently being eaten by Pixar and Dreamworks. While this oddball-herd-returns-a-human-child story reeks of “Shrek” and “Monsters Inc.”, it still provides a few good-natured laughs thanks to the voices of Ray Romano and John Leguizamo, and the requisite agile animation.
